Less than three months ago, on a dazzlingly bright Sunday afternoon, Donald Manning and I stood outside a church in Liberty City discussing the bribery scandal enveloping his long-time friend County Commissioner James Burke. The just-concluded religious service had turned into a rally of sorts for the embattled commissioner, and…
A Student of the Game In his November 14 column (“Arena Winners and Losers: Alex Shoots, Alex Scores!”), Jim DeFede failed to mention those who suffered the greatest loss of all — the people of Dade County. Not only were we duped into allowing the use of at least $250…
Lead Stories *Denny Constantine revealed to the San Jose Mercury News in October that he was part of a team that almost got the go-ahead to drop flying-bat bombs on Japan in World War II. The plan: Tiny incendiary devices would be attached to millions of bats, which would be…
Lead Stories *A New York Times report on the first day’s rescue operations for TWA Flight 800 in July mentioned a man in an army uniform who showed up at the crash-site command center and helped direct helicopter traffic for about twelve hours before those in charge realized they had…
Dukes to Heat: Take Your Turkey and Stuff It I have just read Norma Jean Walker’s opinion of the Miami Heat’s support of the Overtown community (“Letters,” November 14). Now let me give you my opinion. The letter states that the Heat sponsored the first Thanksgiving celebration and will do…
Lead Stories *Several news services reported in October on the growing number of “telephone clubs” in Tokyo in which men (mostly middle-age and older) talk sex with junior high and high school girls. According to the Wall Street Journal, perhaps eight percent of schoolgirls participate at least occasionally. Many of…
The arena war is over. No more obnoxious commercials. No more slick brochures in the mail. No more annoying telephone calls asking for your support. A surprise pact between Miami Heat owner Micky Arison and Dade Mayor Alex Penelas goosed up voter confidence enough that the project enjoyed an overwhelming…
A Corrupt City, a Faltering Newspaper On Saturday, November 9, Miami made the front page of the New York Times for the corruption that marks our city like the wine stain on Gorbachev’s forehead. (The article was titled “Corruption and Money Woes Divide and Anger Miamians.”) This bashing — you…
Stierheim: A Target for Friends of Odio Regarding Robert Andrew Powell’s interview with Merrett Stierheim (“The Stierheim Report,” October 31), the Cubans are maligning an honest public servant who is Miami’s friend. He is not deserving of the racist comments by a few people who are friends of Cesar Odio…
Lead Stories *Right place, right time: In Pittsburgh, during the Steelers-Ravens football game in September, Allen E. Adams was picked up on a previous arrest warrant when a police officer recognized Adams’s name as a winner in the halftime field-goal-kicking promotion. And a few days later, in Victoria, British Columbia,…
Chief Warshaw’s Invitation: How Ironic I just finished reading Elise Ackerman and Michelle Mayer’s article “Policing the Police” (October 24), and found Miami Police Chief Donald Warshaw’s sentiment (“The police department … invites citizens to complain … in order to foster community confidence in the department”) to be rather ironic,…
Lead Stories *Overcoming disabilities: In September wheelchair-using men in Frankfurt, Germany (no legs), and Pompano Beach (missing part of a leg and one eye) attempted bank robberies but were thwarted when a customer and a cop, respectively, rushed in and tipped over the wheelchairs. Also in September, police in East…
Sometime this week Judge Robert Kaye is expected to rule on a lawsuit this newspaper brought against P. Anthony Ridder, chairman of Knight-Ridder, Inc. As we all know, Knight-Ridder owns the Miami Herald (and more than two dozen other newspapers). Tony Ridder, one of the nation’s top media executives, unceremoniously…
The Miami Heat has placed me on waivers. In their eyes I am the Rex Chapman of writers. The Rony Seikaly of columnists. The Alan Ogg of newsmen. Juwan Howard showed more loyalty to this team than I have, and as a result, I am about as welcome in their…
More than an hour after sunset the temperature inside the gym at Booker T. Washington Middle School is still over 90 degrees. Trapped like most everything else in Overtown, the air is heavy and damp. On the floor, two dozen teenage boys race up and down the basketball court, running…
Odio: Enough of the Pointless Poor Taste! I am tired of your unrelenting coverage of Cesar Odio. I thought your article on his family (“Dynasty,” October 10) was pointless and in poor taste. Please write about someone or something else. Enough already. Barbara De Leo Hamra Miami Odio: New Times…
Lead Stories *Dangerous minds: In the same week in September, Southwest Elementary School in Lexington, North Carolina, suspended a six-year-old boy for kissing a girl on the cheek (“sexual harassment”), and the New York Supreme Court disallowed the suspension of a fifteen-year-old boy who was carrying a loaded gun at…
The Odio Clan: Lowly, Stupid, and Vile After reading the unsigned article about Odio family members (“Dynasty,” October 10) in which you made fun of their history, their family, and made jokes at their expense for your own gain, I was struck at how little you must know about the…
Lead Stories *Conspicuous getaways: Armed with descriptions of the perpetrators, police made arrests fairly quickly in robberies in Chicago and Oshawa, Ontario, because thieves were unable to blend in with the crowd as they walked away with their loot. According to police, Jude Bradshaw was still wearing the green hat…
Hello, registrar’s office.” “Hi, is this the registrar’s office at Columbia University?” “Yes, it is.” “Well, I was hoping you could help me. I’m calling from Miami and I was trying to track down some information about a former Columbia professor, Alex Cooper. I believe he taught bullshitting.” “Excuse me?”…
Want Not, Save Not I was so surprised to read that an average of only two people on every flight abstain from the famous airplane food (“Getting Wasted at 35,000 Feet” by Kirk Semple, September 26). I was expecting something like only two people would take it from every flight…
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Him I enjoyed reading Sean Rowe’s article “Gimme Subterranean Shelter,” (September 26) but I must clarify one or two things. My wife, three cats, and I lived in the bomb shelter on Hibiscus Street from April 1993 to June 1994, and…
